The field of the invention is drawer slides and the invention relates more particularly to drawer slides of the type which can be locked in an extended position.
One lockable slide is disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 540,006 filed Oct. 7, 1983. This slide had a metal latch which cooperated with a metal tab to hold the slide in a locked-out configuration. For many applications, however, it is desired to hold the slide in any locked-out position rather than just in a fully extended position. For instance, when the slide is used to support computer keyboards, it is difficult to design a slide which would fit all key boards, and thus the use of a lock capable of locking the slide in any desired extension could be used with a wide variety of keyboards. Also, for some typing applications, different users prefer the keyboard in a different position.
Another disadvantage of many prior art slide locks is that they tend to rattle. That is, a small amount of longitudinal motion is permitted when the slide is in a locked-out configuration. Such movement and sound can be distracting for applications such as the holding of a computer keyboard. It is thus desirable that a drawer slide be available which is capable of locking in any desired position and also locking the slide in a firm non-rattling manner.